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U.S. Coast Guard
Awards

W.W. Griesser

Awarded 23 February 1901

Perhaps the most remarkable rescue performed during
the 1900 was that accomplished by Keeper W. W. Griesser of the Buffalo (NY)
Life-Saving Station on 21 November 1900. For his efforts, he was rewarded
with the bestowal of a Gold Lifesaving Medal. The circumstances of this
rescue were graphically set forth in the following extract from the letter
of the Secretary of the Treasury dated 4 June 1901, transmitting the medal:

"About 2:20
o’clock pm of the day above named, while a gale of great velocity, said
to have been at times as high as 80 miles an hour, was sweeping across the
harbor of Buffalo, two large scows having several men on board broke from
their moorings some 3 miles southwest of the life-saving station and
drifted swiftly toward the breakers. Surfmen discovered the disaster from
the lookout tower, whereupon you promptly launched and manned the
lifeboat, which was taken in tow by the tug Mason and by your
direction dropped at a point three-fourths of a mile to the windward of
the scows. You then allowed her to drive before the wind to a position
just outside the outer line of the surf, where you rounded to and let go
an anchor, in tending by slacking away the hawser to get sufficiently near
the scows to make sure whether the men had escaped or might still need
assistance.

The terrible sweep of the wind, from
which you were wholly unprotected, and the fact that the bottom of the
lake at this point is mostly hardpan caused the anchor to drag so much
that in a few moments the lifeboat was in the midst of the heaviest surf,
which at times completely buried her. Two great combers broke on board,
while a third one caught the bow and threw it high into the air, snapping
asunder the hawser and pitching the heavy boat end over end. You and all
but one of the crew were thrown out, and only after a hard swim reached
the land more than a quarter of a mile away, where you learned that a man
who had been on one of the scows was in a very perilous position among
some old piles standing nearly a third of a mile from where you then were.
A locomotive of the Lehigh Valley Railroad was passing at the time, and
the engineer offered to take you and your crew to the place indicated,
where you shortly arrived and beheld the half-drowned man clinging for his
life to the slippery piles 400 or 500 feet from the shore, the seas
constantly breaking over him, so deeply at times that he was entirely lost
from sight.

The use of a boat was impracticable,
and the situation of the unfortunate man was plainly such that he must
perish unless aid should reach him. There was not time for much
deliberation, and you quickly resolved to try to swim out with a line,
calling upon Surfman Greenland to accompany you. As you two were about to
start upon this hazardous enter p rise you were warned by experienced men
that you could not live to accomplish it, but, nothing daunted, you simply
replied: ‘‘Wait until we try; he can not come to us; we will try to go
to him."

Making one end of the line fast about
your arm, you dashed into the lake, accompanied by Greenland, but had not
proceeded far when you were both thrown back upon the beach. Again both
set out, but when about 50 yards on the way a very heavy sea hurled
Greenland against an old pile, doing him considerable injury, then swept
him to the land.

You were still uninjured and bravely
persisted in your purpose, being repeatedly driven shoreward but gradually
gaining ground until, in the course of some fifteen minutes, you reached a
pile standing some 60 or 70 yards from the beach, where you held on for a
few moments of rest. This was the only pause you made during the entire
operation of rescue, which consumed three-fourths of an hour. After
somewhat recovering your breath you renewed the battle, and although
severely buffeted and many times beaten back from 100 to 200 feet, you
still kept a stout heart. Sometimes when an ugly comber would have lifted
you up and carried you rearward on its crest you dived beneath it and
taking advantage of the undertow running in your favor maintained your
progress. Physically weaker men could not have endured the strain, while
men less brave although of equal strength would long before have given up.

At length getting sufficiently near you
threw to the man the end of the line, instructing him to make it fast
about his body and then to let go his hold of the piling and drop into the
water. He had only sufficient strength, however, to secure the line about
his wrist, and before he could leap the waves caught and fouled the bight
of the line among the piling. At the same time you were thrown nearly 100
feet away and for once a fear entered your mind that you might fail after
all. The imperiled man was begging piteously for you to save him and
crying out that he could hold on but a few moments longer. To the people
on the shore it seemed as though both of you must certainly perish.
Baffled, but neither vanquished nor dismayed, you still persisted,
regaining your lost ground, and at the end of fifteen minutes of very
dangerous work cleared the snarl. Then upon your signal the man let go of
the piles, while scores of persons at the other end of the line pulled him
with a rush to the beach, where he was picked up unconscious.

When you were satisfied that no further
mishap was likely to befall him you struck out for the land, which you
reached without aid but so exhausted that you could not stand. Eager hands
lifted your prostrate body from the edge of the water, while
long-continued cheers attested the estimation accorded your gallant deed
by the hundreds of persons who witnessed it.

It appears that while engaged in
effecting this extraordinary rescue, involving very great courage,
physical exertion, and mental anxiety, you were considerably injured by
coming in contact with a floating telegraph pole, that passed over you two
or three times, inflicting heavy blows upon your back. In view of this
fact and all the other extremely adverse circumstances, it would seem
incredible but for indisputable evidence that you performed the marvelous
feat, which was, indeed, effected only at the extreme peril of your life."